As I do not, and will not be utilizing VST Connect, as it's not necessary with my workflow, can it be safely uninstalled. I'd like to speed up Intial start up, and ever since the update, I have crashes while attempting to open a project. Seems I have both SE and the regular VST Connect installed.
What to do?
Thanks!

As I do not, and will not be utilizing VST Connect, as it's not necessary with my workflow, can it be safely uninstalled. I'd like to speed up Intial start up, and ever since the update, I have crashes while attempting to open a project. Seems I have both SE and the regular VST Connect installed.
What to do?
Thanks!

It does not have any impact on startup at all (except just once for the very first time Cubase is scanning plugins).
As the SE Version is part of the Cubase Installation and given the fact that it does not do anything at all when not activated, you are advised to leave it installed.

All plugins are beeing scanned when they are new, or a new version is detected. Once scanned, the information is stored in some file. Whenever Cuabse starts, it "scans" all plugins and compares the existing version with the stored information; this is usually done in microseconds, but "scanning xxx" is always displayed to inform the user. Vst Connect/Transit are probably the last beeing "scanned", so in the splash box the last one remains displayed while the next loading task is beeing performed and its result is displayed, which may take a while. Long story short: scanning VST Connect or VST Transit takes just as much time as any other plugin that has been scanned before - which is close to nothing.